• A watchdog agency monitoring charities revealed in May its choice for "worst" among those "helping" U.S. veterans: The National Vietnam Veterans Foundation raised more than $29 million from 2010 to 2014 -- but wound up donating about 2 cents of every dollar toward actual help. The other 98 cents went to administration and fund-raising. (Similarly troubling, according to the watchdog, is that the CEO of NVVF is a staff attorney at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.) [Fox News, 5-17-2016]

• Gainesville, Florida, performance artist Tom Miller planned a public piece in a downtown plaza during May and June as homage to the music composer John Cage's celebrated "4'33" (which is four minutes and 33 seconds of purposeful silence by all musicians who "play" on the piece). Miller said his project would consist of local artists "installing" sculpture at 15-minute intervals for five days -- except that the "sculpture" would have to be imagined by observers, as (in the tradition of Cage) nothing otherwise perceptible would be there. [Gainesville Sun, 5-31-2016]